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'Fiddlers
Three' show makes souls merry
Thursday,
May 23, 2002
By
T. J. Medrek, page: 60
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| MUSIC
REVIEW
Boston
Pops' "Fiddlers Three," conducted
by Keith Lockhart, at Symphony Hall,
last night; repeats tonight.
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With
apologies to Old King Cole, conductor
Keith Lockhart called not for his pipe,
not for his bowl but for his fiddlers
three at Symphony Hall.
The
occasion was the first of two Boston
Pops "Fiddlers Three" concerts
starring violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,
Regina Carter and Eileen Ivers and featuring
the world premiere of Chris Brubeck's
lively "Interplay" for this
trio and orchestra. And if the nursery-rhyme
monarch himself had been there, I'm
sure he would have made his soul merry
indeed.
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Before
the Brubeck, each violinist demonstrated
her prowess in her chosen specialty. For
Salerno-Sonnenberg, that meant playing
Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
For Carter and her jazz combo, that meant
a George Gershwin and Milt Jackson set.
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And
for Ivers - well, if you've seen her
in "Riverdance" you know both
her trademark blue fiddle and her roof-raising
way with Irish music. To that she added
an equally effective bluegrass number.
It wasn't exacty a surprise that Ivers
seemed the clear audience favorite
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With
his "Interplay", Brubeck seems
on the verge of becoming to the Lockhart
Pops what Leroy Anderson was in Fiedler's
day: the orchestra's composer of choice
for both enduring and occasional pieces.
Last year, with his concerto for pops
orchestra "Convergence," he
showed that he can deliver music of substance
that doesn't need five pages of program
notes to "explain" to an audience.
And with "Interplay" he proved
his ability to come up with a party piece
to exact specifications.
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In
this case, what was called for was a piece
to showcase three great but very different
talents, and that's what Brubeck delivered.
Thus Salerno-Sonnenberg got the most detailed
music, Ivers the most rhythmic and Carter
the most voluptuous. And the best part
came towards the end of the 10-minute
work, when the three engaged in a real
musical conversation, passing the same
tune around in different ways.
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| "Interplay"
won't have much of a life after tonights
encore performance - aside from a spot
on PBS' "Evening at Pops" this
summer. After all, how often are classical,
jazz and Irish violinists of this caliber
going to come together? But for know it's
exacly what Lockhart - and Old King Cole
- called for. |
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